South Korea, the convincing winners over Greece in their Group B opener, were no match with La Albiceleste as talisman Lionel Messi turned out instrumental in all four goals.

Argentina demonstrated their smooth-passing style and attacking prowess since the very beginning but it was a South Korean own goal that put the Argentines ahead at the 17th minute.

After Angel Di María was fouled, Messi delivered a perfect free kick which looped to the penalty spot and came off the shin of Park Chu-Young to fly into the net.

At the 33rd minute, Messi and Maxi Rodriguez were allowed enough time and space to take a free-kick down the left and when Maxi's cross was flicked on by Nicolas Burdisso, Higuain had the simple task of nodding in.

Ki Sung-Yueng pulled one goal back with a stunning right-footer at the end of the first half.

At the 76th minute, Messi stormed into the area and saw his first shot kept out by the goalkeeper. His follow-up hit the inside of the post and there was Higuain to apply the final touch.

With 10 minutes to go, Messi's pass found Sergio Aguero whose cross met a header from Higuain to complete his hat-trick. ' Maradona was elated.

"I want to congratulate my players for having perfectly executed our game plan," he said. "We deserved a win like this because we'd already threatened this kind of result against Nigeria."

Greece kept their hopes alive with a come-from-behind victory over Nigeria.

The Super Eagles opened the scoring in the 16th minute through Kalu Uche but the situation changed at the half-hour when Sani Kaita received a red card for kicking Vasileios Torosidis.

It was even in the 44th minute as Konstantinos Katsouranis laid the ball off to Dimitrios Salpingidis, whose strike deflected off the young Monaco midfielder and into the back of the net.

Nigerian keeper Vincent Enyeama cleared numerous threats in the second half but he would have to take the blame for the Greek winner after he spilled Alexandros Tziolis's long-range shot into the path of Torosidis, who didn't waste the gilt chance in the 71st minute.

For Nigeria, this was their seventh World Cup match without victory, and they must now beat South Korea on Tuesday and hope Argentina can beat a Greek side.

"The positive thing is that we still have a chance of qualifying, although we need a helping hand from Argentina," said Nigeria coach Lars Lagerback.